At the 2025 Cinema Femme Short Film Festival that took place at the Music Box Theatre earlier this summer, filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist Lauren Melinda was honored as the first recipient of the Chaz Ebert Phenomenal Person in Film Award. For these reasons, I believe Lauren Melinda is the deeply deserving recipient of the 2025 Chaz Ebert Phenomenal Person in Film Award.”When asked about Evan’s words, Melinda reflected on how deeply they resonated:“I so appreciate that’s what she saw from the film. The film is about shifting expectations and opening space for those emotions to coexist.”About the AwardThe Phenomenal Person in Film Award was inspired in 2019, when Chaz Ebert praised Cinema Femme’s Executive Director, Rebecca Martin Fagerholm, as “a phenomenal woman” during a public event. Each recipient is interviewed for Cinema Femme Magazine and invited to meet Chaz Ebert, continuing her mission of mentoring and uplifting new voices. Past honorees of the original Phenomenal Person Award have included Veronica Miles, Katrine Weber, Anna Fredrikke Bjerke, Mazdey Snob, Tiffany Tenille, and Claudia Lee.